The Ensnared
Authors: Palvi Sharma
The Ensnared
By Palvi
Copyright© 2012 by
Palvi Sharma
All Rights Reserved
This Book is a work
of Fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely
co-incidental.
Credits:
Images courtesy of
FreeDigitalPhotos.net
On a hot July evening, the
Promenade should have been empty and devoid of people, but to Melissa’s
surprise, there were people all around her. She could spot families with little
kids having picnics on the small patches of lawn under the palm trees and
college kids either talking on mobile phones or studying from their thick
textbooks.
She crossed her arms as she walked
with her best friend Jennifer, who was talking to her about shoes, but Melissa
found her thoughts wavering. She knew that Jennifer wouldn’t really notice that
she wasn’t paying attention, because Jennifer only liked to talk endlessly.
Melissa nodded and smiled at her,
pretending to feign interest before turning to look at the boutique right
across the street. Everything was so beautiful on this street. There were two
more boutiques alongside the small grocery store, a fast food joint, a small
cafe and a movie theatre right across the road from where she was. On her left,
was the vast lagoon that spread before her. Every tiny ripple on the water
surface shimmered from the lights of the buildings and street lamps. She gazed
up at the sky and saw that it was lit up with twinkling stars and the crescent
moon.
Everything was so serene, and
Melissa should have felt exactly like that, but her thoughts returned to what
had happened two months ago. The memory refused to leave her mind and let her
enjoy this beautiful evening.
“You are so not wearing that dress!”
Jennifer said and Melissa almost jumped.
“What?”
Jennifer frowned at her. “You
weren’t paying attention, were you?” she complained. “Anyway, I was telling my
roommate Riya the other day that she shouldn’t be wearing that new dress she
bought. We’re studying fashion for heaven’s sake, so how could she even
consider wearing that awful dress?”
“Maybe...”Melissa started to say,
but Jennifer shook her head quickly.
“You should have seen it!” Jennifer
said. “There was blue and red and pink and yellow all over it! It was ghastly.”
“Well then it’s a good thing you gave
her some fashion advice.” Melissa said and looked towards a group of college
kids sitting on a nearby bench. The girl kept giggling about something as her
two guy friends told her something. She saw a couple walk towards them and join
them.
“So, you’re coming right?” Jennifer
asked.
“Hmmm? Coming where?” Melissa
asked.
“My party?” Jennifer said and
cocked an eyebrow. “I’ve been talking about it for like, forever!”
“I don’t feel like it.” Melissa
sighed and stared down at her shoes. It was time she discarded her old sneakers
and buy new ones before the sole came off.
“If it’s still about Mark, I think
it’s time you got over it already. He’s so not worth it.”
Melissa hugged her handbag. “You
don’t understand what’s it like. I left everything for him to come here so we
could be in the same school only to find out that he was cheating on me.”
“Screw him!” Jennifer said out
loud. A family who was sitting nearby looked up at them as they walked by and
Melissa felt her face getting warm.
Jennifer had never been in love
like she had been, so obviously her friend wasn’t going to understand how
heartbroken she still felt. Her parents had wanted her to go to law school;
instead she had fought them on this decision and told them she was going with
Mark to a culinary school even though she had no interest in it all. Mark
wanted to be a chef and open his own restaurant someday, and that had been
enough for her. She would help him with his dream even if it meant going
against her parents. They didn’t understand her or her love for Mark. So right
after graduation, she had applied to the Culinary school and been admitted to
the spring batch alongside Mark. Her parents were furious with her decision,
but all she could think of was her future with Mark.
“If you ask me,” Jennifer said,
breaking into her thoughts, “he was way too dominating. He won’t even let you
go anywhere by yourself. I mean, if Riya hadn’t told me about this place, we
would have never even found this.”
Melissa smiled at her but said
nothing. Mark had been like that. Ever since they had come here, Mark had taken
her to malls and drive-ins, but never for a walk in such a beautiful place like
this. She could feel the extra pounds she had put on after the break-up melting
away in the July heat. Even now as she thought about all the ice-creams and
éclairs she had hogged on, she could feel nothing but contempt at her herself.
How could she have let herself go like that?
Jennifer paused suddenly and leaned
against the railing. “The lagoon is so beautiful.” she remarked.
“It is.” Melissa said and put her
hands on the railing. Her hands were sweaty and her hair hung down in damp
tendrils. Her t-shirt was uncomfortably clinging to her, but Melissa could feel
nothing but invigorated. She could feel the pain in her heart subsiding as a
drop of sweat rolled down her face. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.
“Dude, that’s an urban legend!” she
heard a boy guffaw.
A gust of cold wind brushed her
face and Melissa opened her eyes and blinked.
“Did you feel that too?” Jennifer
asked.
“That was weird.” Melissa turned
around and saw the group of college kids she had seen earlier. One of the boys
looked really serious as he explained something to his friend. The girl who was
with him appeared sullen.
The cold wind brushed against her
again and Melissa shivered. She turned to look at her friend whose face was
contorted in puzzlement. Melissa looked across the road to where she was
looking and knew why her friend looked so confused. There were people coming
out in large numbers from the shops and theatres and walking away from the
street in a hurry. Shops were starting to close down and people were getting
into their cars and driving away.
“This is really just absurd.”
Jennifer said, watching a car pass them by. “Is there a fire or something?”
Melissa saw a family, who was
sitting on a bench, frantically gather their things. She walked over to them
and handed them a plastic bag that had dropped from their table. “What’s wrong?”
she asked the woman.
The woman looked at her husband as
he caught the hands of his two young sons. She saw fear in their eyes and they
seemed to be communicating telepathically.
“Nothing’s wrong.” the man said.
“We just have an appointment elsewhere and we completely forgot about the
time.”
Melissa looked back at the woman
who was busy stuffing everything into her tiny bag. “Everyone is in such a
hurry all of a sudden. We were wondering if there was an emergency or
something.”
“It’s nothing.” the man said. “It’s
always so busy on these streets.”
“Yeah but people tend to be busy on
the streets rather than running away.” Jennifer added.
The family ignored them and left
without another word. Melissa felt a shiver run down her spine as the wind blew
on her.
“I must be coming down with
something, because I’m starting to freeze.” Jennifer said. “What’s gotten into
everyone?”
Melissa shrugged her shoulders.
Even though almost everyone around them were leaving, the group she had spotted
earlier, were still there huddled and talking about something.
“I think we should go to.” Jennifer
said. “This is just too weird.”
Melissa nodded in agreement and
felt her skin crawl with gooseflesh when she heard the low howl of the wind.
The streets were empty now, except for a few abandoned cars, the group of
people she had seen earlier and them. The buildings behind the shops looked
deserted too.
Jennifer took her arm and started
to walk faster as the temperatures started to drop lower.
“Did you hear that?” she asked and
Melissa looked at her, not understanding at first. Seconds later, the night
filled with sounds of approaching motorcycle engines. Melissa saw Jennifer’s
mouth drop open.
“Run!” she screamed and both girls
started to sprint.
Melissa could feel her heart
thudding rapidly and she tried to tell herself that the motorcycles belonged to
the cops, but her gut told her otherwise. Something was wrong and something bad
was going to happen.
They had barely taken a few steps
when they heard a loud crackle.
Jennifer let out a scream and
Melissa hugged her. They turned around to see the street lamps going off one by
one. The rows of houses across the lagoon were suddenly plunged into darkness
and Melissa put her hand on her mouth.
They heard another loud crackle as
the street lamps shut off and before Melissa could catch a breath, the last of
the lamps went off, leaving the street in complete darkness.
It took Melissa several seconds to realize
that she had been holding her breath. The streets were completely dark and it
was so quiet, she could hear Jennifer breathing heavily. She counted to ten in
her mind; telling herself that any second now the back-up generators would come
back on and everything would be fine. ‘It was only a blackout’ she told herself,
‘and even though the street lamps might not come on, one of the shops in the
street was bound to have an inverter’.
She felt a hand on her upper arm
and almost screamed before realizing it was only Jennifer.
“Let’s get out of here!” she
gasped. “The darkness...I can’t breathe.”
Melissa hugged her friend tight,
trying to comfort her but realizing that she too needed comfort. When they were
kids and used to have sleepovers, Jennifer had always been the one to create a
big fuss whenever the lights would be switched off. Melissa had thought that
her friend had overgrown her fears by now, but seeing her best friend trembling
in her grip and gasping, proved otherwise.
“It’s going to be okay.” Melissa
whispered to her. “We’ll just turn around and walk back. In a few minutes,
we’ll be on familiar streets. Or if we’re really lucky, we might find a cab.”
“Call Riya.” Jennifer said. “Have
her come pick us up.”
Melissa nodded and then realized
that Jennifer couldn’t see her movements. “Okay.” she said and quickly took out
her cell phone. She switched it on and frowned. “No service.”
“What?” Jennifer asked and snatched
her phone from her fingers. She stared at the screen for some time before
pulling out her own. “I don’t have any bars!”
“We have a Plan B.” Melissa told
her. “We’ll walk back the way we came and we can use the lights from our cell
phones to guide us.”
She saw Jennifer give her a small
smile as she pushed a few buttons on her cell phone. “Fine, but we better start
walking faster, because my battery is kind of low.”
“We’ll make it.” Melissa said and
took Jennifer’s hand. She swallowed when she saw that Jennifer’s hands were
freezing cold in her own. She hadn’t wanted to alarm her friend, but why was it
getting colder? It was the middle of July for heaven’s sake. She tried to
listen for some sounds and heaved a sigh of relief when she heard voices beside
them.